The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-03-30
HEPBURN OF IOWA.
An Eloquent Tribute TO tho 400, 900
Union Soldiers Who Marched
10 Death.
Only 10000 People Would Have Shared in
the Pension Bill-And Only $4,370,-
600 Required to Pay Them.
The Contrast with the Mexican Soldiers
A whitening Analysis of
Bragg.
From tho Iowa State Register. !

Colonel Hepburn replied to his neighbors,
when he received such n cordial welcome
Nome at Clarinda, Iowa, was one of pecul-
lar grace and power, and one which is
worthy to be printed in every free minded
and fair dealing paper in the land. In no
other speech or paper has the cruelty of the
pension veto. the justice of the provisions
of the bill, the debt of honor owed by the
nation to its soldiers, and the facts as to
the few or the many who would have been
benefited by the BILL been so clearly and
powerfully set forth as in this impromptu
speech of this great defender of the Union
soldiers. in talking TO his own neighbois.
1t is safe to say that this speech will be the
one which the Democratic party will have
to meet IN the campaigns in the different
States, when it shall attempt to Justify
the action of Cleveland as demanded of
him by the solid South and the cold
blooded money kings of the North. The
old Union soldiers, wherever they shall be
as this speech shall come to them, will
thank God for Pete Hepburn.
After a beautiful and loving tribute to
Iowa. his home, and its people, his neigh
bors for nearly his whole life, the Colonel
said;
There are matters that would like to talk
about, but fearing that some might regard them
improper upon an occasion like this because OF
seeming partisanship, will omit them. can
not however, omit one thing that desire 10 say;
and that is that the President OF these United
States, in my humble judgment, in honesty Of
purpose, perhaps, has mistaken the temper OF
the people when ho CLASHES those with you
and our Chairman from '6l to 90 as paupers and
mendicants. 1t is n mistake no less marked and
certain than those other bitter words uttered by
our whilom comrades when they were CLASSIFIED
Vagabonds, ms thieves, as perlurers, as the
scum of the earth The battle-scarred old he
roes of the Rebellion, lettering toward tine grave,
have done nothing todeserve such characteriza-
Int SnTnntin1na / thOnnnt
that there might have been n misleading of the
Executive mind that was in harmony with hon
est purpose. remember that all the great Jour
nails of this land are to-day declaiming against
the claims and the rights 20 recognition Of the
old veteran: but l remember, my comrades
that in 81 that same class of journals printed
in the great metropolitan centers the centers
of wealth, not those that upheld the
hands of Abraham Lincoln in the earlier part
OF the war. The capital of this nation like the
capital of every other nation, then was coward
~ as il now is mean. CHEERS and applause.
These whose sentiments are voiced by
the great metropolitan press forget the tnen
situation. They were mensced by separation
of our territory into two hostile nations-na-
tions if erected that must be in the very nature
of things constantly at war. There could
have been no peace between the United States
ana the Confederate States. There were such
differences of sentiment, such differences OF
purpose, there were such wars OF ideas, that
they would have manifested themselves in
wars more disastrous than the wars of the
Roses the Thirty Years war that devastated
Europe. The Confederate States with slavery
as an institution and the United States with
the liberty -loying,principles that we had, could
not have been at peace. The result would have
been constant carnage, that constant destruc-
ton of wealth, that constant interference with
accumulation that would then have sent the
now rich TO the poorhouse
The old veteran saved them from the poor
houses, in their days of distress; they forget IL
and are not willing now to save the old veteran
from the poorhouse. Applause. / am not over
drawing this picture. The man who was n man
TWENTY-FIVE wears ago and abreast of the thought
of ia knows QhgOlntO
it would have been 10 have had two governments,
resting upon the cornerstone of liberty
and the other resting upon the cornerstone OF
human slavery, existing side by side in con
dition of peace and alnity. l have thought
sometimes that the younger men-those grow
ing into the activities of life now-fail to APP
preciate the situation of twenty-five years ago.
You young gentlemen have seen nothing around
you during oil of your few years OF experience
save those conditions that result from peace
prosperity, and plenty. You know nothing
of the conditions OF twenty-five years ago. Since
that period we have trebled our wealth, we have
more than doubled our population. Since that
period we have trebled our manufacturing and
withdrawing possibilities; we have more
than quadrupled the circulating medium we
have since that time multiplied by five times
the railways of the country we have more than
doubled the commerce OF the country; we have
more than quadrupled the internal commerce
of the country. You know nothing about that
and perhaps you have but faint recollections OF
what the war cost
You NAV not know that OF the men thai
marched to the front, 81, 900 of them were shot
to death on the battlefield; that $4,000 OF then
died in hospitals of wounds received; that -
600 of them were starved to death in the prison
pens OF the South that 24,00) of them died from
accident, were drowned, died from sunstroke
disappeared that 235,0O0 died in the hospital;
while their names were still upon the army
rolls. A great army of 10000 men that went tC
the front and never came back You have for
gotten this if you ever knew il. Think of what
multitude of menl There have never been Sc
many votes cast in any election in the state o.
Iowa there are not SO many voters in the State
Iowa tO-lAW ms HpQ0
Could they be called back and formed into bat
tle-line, formed into marching column, divided
into three arms Of the service--infantry cayal
ry, AID artillery; mount the cavalry furnish
the artillery with guns, horses, and Gals
sons. give to each that camp and garrison
equipages and those army trains needed I,
move the army and supply it for thirty days,
and start il from Davenport on the march whei
the vanguard reached the city of Council Bluff
the rear guard would still be looking from tn,
bluffs into the Mississippi River. That was thu
number of men that died-that were our com
rades. Can il be possible? would say il TO thu
President, IL could can it be possible that of
corps marching TO the front, twenty -hve pc
cent. and more could be destroyed, and the bal
ance escape unscathed2 They may have es
capped tho mark of bullet; but how is il posi-
BILE. all undergoing the same fatgues the SAM
perils the same vcisstudes, one strong man i
stricken down and the others not somewhat af
fected apprecHby in that physical construction
that units them for the possibilities Of old age
to say nothing of those That languished in tn
prison-pen. Twenty-six Of Page County's boy
lay for nine months amid the horrors OF AndeT
sOnville: young, stalwart vigorous men vine
they went within those fatal. fearful gates yo
can select them to-day among the men Of thei
age because of the premature decay resultin
from the horrors of the situation into whic
they were thrust; and yet. perhaps, not one
them under tho pension laws as they now eXis
could receive n pension. That pension bill this
was referred TO by the gentlemen who prccede
me was not the serious thing that many hav
supposed.
it has been ascertained by returns made fror
n little more than half Of the counties in tn
United States that nearly 1000 men in thos
counties we're inmates Of the different poo
houses 10 was therefore estimated that 1000
mon were in the oor-houses OF the land. Thi
dependent pension bill was intended to cove
those Cases cases Of men hOnorably di
charged, who from disease were totally nj
able to earn n support It was estimated tina
perhaps, there would be 10000 more so thu
80 OO) in round numbers was the total numb'
that tho Commissioner OF Pensions and u
Committee Of Invalid Pensions in the Hous
expected would be benefcaries under that &C
so that the bill would cost the Government n
told n little less than four and three fourth
million dollars annually. the cost gradual
diminishing. No fair Interpretation OF that bi
can make any man beneficiary under IL vi
less ne is dependent upon his manual labor Il
aupport and Is totally incapable OF earning
sunport It was that class OF men we were tr
inc 10 proyide for IL is that class OF men TIT
Tho metropolitan press has SAID shall not
,,rovided for ut the instance OF the wealth
The country and the solid vote Of the unrecoi
atructed South. There was no question
a., IA M n a nj